To My Runaway
by taratron
Summary: The further you run, the closer you get.


To My Runaway  
by Taratron

And so the widow has gone to the Maximals, and somehow _I_ was supposed to have seen this coming! Oh, naturally, as if all spiders are bonded together in some grand web of destiny.

Megatron, of course, uses such analogies. He thinks he is a master wordsmith, when all he truly is is a butcher of poetry and failed orders. If he wants someone to patrol a sector, he tells them to find some location for a relay, or go energon mining. He never _says_ patrol. It would, naturally, make too much sense.

But he is right, sadly, in his way. Spiders all don't have a bond, some grand web of fate or anything. But the widow and myself? Well…that is something else.

I admit now in hindsight her beast mode perhaps was a cause. Next time (if there IS a next time, which I pray to Primus there is), I will choose more carefully. A spider, naturally, and perhaps another widow...but with this new one, I will _insure_ loyalty. Free will is fine and acceptable. But loyalty to me is _not_ an option.

It must be factual.

I know she despised me. But such a fact is life. That, in all honesty, did not bother me. She could love me, hate me, whatever she pleased; I insured she _did_ have free will and free emotions to do as she wanted.

Who could have ever foreseen that Fuzor freak? Not myself…and certainly not _her_. I have recorded conversations of theirs, before she left. They claimed to have loved each other. The Fuzor was very convincing, though he never calls her by name. Only 'beloved,' or some such garbage. The widow…she, on the other hand, is a mistress (master?) of deception. The tones she uses with the Fuzor are the same she has used with Megatron, and, on occasion, myself. She wants something, she tries to be Nice. Or at least winning. One must give a little to get a little, and with her, I did give a lot.

Life, for starts. True, her pod was not _that_ damaged, but they all are after that rough descent. I gave her a beast mode, new programming, a chance to be something _other_ than a Maximal drone spouting hypocrisies. I gave her life. Every Predacon, from Megatron to Waspinator, knew that. I even gave her _modifications_; do you think MAXIMALS would _ever_ have had females so well in proportion and beauty? No, I have seen _their_ female. There are designers, like myself, and then there are programmers, who let the pod form, no matter how terrible the result.

But the point is that I gave her something NO other Predacon could: life! I gave her the most precious thing of all, a free life, a free life from Megatron, even. I didn't program her to be loyal to him, nor to anyone.

That, of course, was my first mistake. She should have _known_ from the moment of stepping from the pod that _I_ was her creator, _I_ gave her life. Instead she emerged with the knowledge that she was a spider, she was deadly, she was beautiful. She understood that I had had something to do with the beast mode selection, but no one ever heard her complain.

My first mistake…my first pod reprogramming on the new exploration pods of the Maximals. And then came the second mistake, of _not_ fixing the first, and from there it all went downhill. The widow discovered she could twist the other males around easily, and she did, believe me, the little slut. She used what I gave her not for defense, not for pleasure to those to whom she owed great debts, but for her personal foolish agendas.

Oh, yes, and I am certain there are several who would dare to judge me. How can I, after all, call the widow _mine_? She is, true, her own spark. I did not give her a spark. But I DID give her a form…and programming…and weapons, and the ability to use them all. Had anyone else tried with her pod, we lightly would have had another Waspinator, or worse, and Inferno. No. I did my best, and the widow was my result. _Mine_. NOT Megatron's, not Waspinator's, no one else's save myself. _I_ did all the work, _I_ saved her spark by granting it a form. I gave her everything that she has and needed, and in the time she betrayed me, I also got my revenge.

Perhaps I should have stayed in her pretty little head. I could have controlled her from there…

But she IS her own person, I hear something objecting. Someone. Granted. I have already SAID she is. She is her own person, but she is _mine_ first, and always will be, Fuzor or no.

Cybertron was never that impressed with gender. Not until the Great War landed on Earth, a patriarchal planet, for the very vast majority. The males are in control there, and on Cybertron, the same holds now too. Females were always told they were of the same ranking as males, but everyone knew this was a kind lie. Females never were considered halfway as worthy as males. In some cultures, I have even read about, having females as progeny was considered worthless. Having males was key to surviving past childbearing years. Males could own land, they could participate in government, they controlled the world. The females pretended to. But in case and fact they were owned, every day of their lives, by a male. A father first, then a husband, a boyfriend, a master, a son. The words differ but the intent is all the same. From what I saw of Earth BEFORE I landed on this infernal ancient wasteland, it was still very much the same.

I gave the widow LIFE. I gave her everything, and she never so much as smiled at me, never so much as thanked me for not letting her spark fade, or for not destroying her personality chip, for nothing. She took everything I gave with a smirk. She thought she was in control of her life. She still does.

She doesn't understand still that _I_ gave her life. _I_ gave her a function, a purpose. She will NEVER get half as much from that Fuzor. He pretends to care about her, but like it or not, he is the same as myself. We both want to own her. And I do….or did…and now he does. A transfer of ownership is all this defection is.

The Fuzor can call it love, he can call it adoration, he can call it worship or lust or hatred or a sheer want to steal my property away. And yes, that is what she is and will be. Anyone who dares to speak against that….what planet are you from? Do the females there have equal rights? Are they the same as males? Treated the same? And progeny? The moment a child is born, does it have the same rights as its creators….or does it BELONG to them?

In most of the planets I have been on, until a child reaches a certain age, it is property of its creators. And in most of those same places, all life is is a transfer of ownership from one to another. Slavery? Call it what you wish. Most species call it the rightful order of things. I have heard even of religions that SAY a female's place is below a male's!

So you see I am not the first to use this idea. No…by all rights, the widow is _mine_. _I_ gave her life, and she certainly is not old enough, nor mature enough, to understand that females are treated as this way not because no one says yes, but because no one does not say no. She is too young still, too inexperienced, to understand that going from my rule and control to the Fuzor is merely a change of location. Those in control NEVER change.

They may appear to. Earth appointed female leaders in low positions, from time to time. But never did a female go into armed combat. Never did a female become ruler of a very important nation, and when one did, she was treated as someone who did not know her place.

The widow does not know her place. I imagine in time, she will. Maximals merely use different terms, but the intent, like control, is always the same. To control. To own.

But that is how things are. She imagines them to be different with the Fuzor. They won't be.

Females were given roles on Cybertron too, the same as Earth. And when they dared to go outside those carefully chosen roles, they were ignored, beaten, sometimes killed. It's never safe to erase the lines of your role box, especially when your owners are ready and waiting with a pen.

I am certain that every Predacon in this ship would stare at me, if I dared to explain my rights and opinions…they would stare, yes, but inwardly they would all agree and feel the same. Megatron perhaps never liked to admit it, but he always knew on some level that the widow was MINE. He could try and take her from me, but he never could, and never did. No…it took some sweet and foolish words from some freak to sway her. Power and justice did not.

Oh, widow….to speak with you now. To tell you how young and foolish and stupid you are, leaving the haven of your home to run off with some random male, a male who promises undying loyalty and love, but have you never noticed how jealously he keeps you from the other males? How he insures everyone knows that you are HIS beloved? No one else's? How he watches you around that cat with wariness quite unlike a normal person? But no…the first male to smile at you, to tell you how lovely you are and look, to fill your head with nonsense and lies and words of unflagging adoration…and you believed every word of it. Even Maximals can lie, widow. But when one comes to you, smiling and shining from flight, bowing and praising you, how can you believe me, after all? I only gave you life, I have only survived many battles and many wars. I know nothing, do I?

You have stepped outside your role box, or so you believe. You are merely in one of another color now. Does your Fuzor let you patrol alone? Does he offer you to practice sparring, or does he merely insist to be with you at all times as a defender? Does he ever call you by name? Of course not…of course, for how else can you understand that you are female and weak and thus you need his protection….and never.

To him, you are beloved. To me, you were and are witch, widow. The words are different, but the control impact is the same. You are not your own person, widow. You have always and will always belong to someone else. You have never wanted to believe that, but it is time you started to.

And so, widow, I leave you with this. You left the Predacons and you left me, because you thought the other side looked fresher, safer, more entertaining and enjoyable? Perhaps…but after a while your Fuzor will grate upon you. He will demand to know where you are, every hour of the day (I never did, merely tracked you myself), he will want to know why you are going there, he will wish to understand for you to understand that you are HIS (not the cat's, not the Maximals'). He will get more stingy with where you are allowed to patrol, if you are permitted to leave the base ever. And if you try to, without him knowing, he will track you down, spew words of love and protection, and you will allow him, for a time, to coddle you back to the Axalon base. But one day, widow, one day you will finally seek to leave, because the Fuzor will finally be seen as every other male…one who wants to dominate and control (though only one has that right, and you know who, even grudgingly)…and on that day you finally seek to leave, widow, where will you go, and to whom will you turn?

For I will not take you back under my care. I, after all, have no interest in runaway slaves, nor in spoiled property.

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